Because the Russia-Ukraine battle enters its 171st day, we check out the primary developments.

Listed here are the important thing occasions on Saturday, August 13.

Preventing

• Blasts this week on the Russian-operated Saky navy airfield within the annexed Crimean Peninsula led to the lack of eight Russian fight jets, the UK’s defence ministry mentioned.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy advised authorities officers to cease speaking to reporters about Kyiv’s navy ways in opposition to Russia, saying such remarks have been “frankly irresponsible”.
• Russia’s defence ministry mentioned its forces destroyed a US-made AN/MPQ-64 radar system in Ukraine’s jap Donetsk area. In its newest each day briefing, the ministry additionally mentioned Russian troops had shot down two US-made Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket Methods (HIMARS) missiles.
• Ukraine’s defence minister mentioned Kyiv has obtained a cargo of M20 A number of Launch Rocket Methods (MLRS) from the UK.
• Ukraine’s navy mentioned its artillery hit a Russian ammunition depot close to a key bridge within the south on Friday and added it now had the flexibility to assault almost all of Moscow’s provide traces within the occupied area.

Economic system

• Russia’s gross home product (GDP) contracted by 4 % within the second quarter in contrast with the identical interval a yr earlier, as financial sanctions by the West take their toll on the financial system, the nationwide statistics company mentioned.
• Russia’s Nationwide Settlement Depository (NSD) mentioned it filed a lawsuit on the European Courtroom of Justice in Luxembourg to overturn European Union sanctions imposed on the nation over its invasion of Ukraine.
• A possible new gasoline connection between Spain and France might be able to function in lower than a yr’s time, Spain’s Vitality Minister Teresa Ribera mentioned, if France and different European nations agree on the mission. The EU is racing to wean itself off Russian pure gasoline after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bringing new interconnection initiatives into focus.
• McDonald’s will begin reopening a few of its eating places in Ukraine within the coming months, a logo of the war-torn nation’s return to some sense of normalcy and a present of help after the American fast-food chain and others pulled out of Russia.
• Russia is contemplating shopping for the currencies of “pleasant” nations similar to China, India and Turkey to carry in its Nationwide Wealth Fund (NWF), having misplaced the flexibility to purchase {dollars} or euros attributable to sanctions, its central financial institution has mentioned.
• Russian oil flows to the Czech Republic by means of the Druzhba pipeline are set to renew inside hours after transit payment funds have been unblocked, Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol has mentioned.